When we were in Taiwan, we took a daytrip to Taichung and The Rainbow Military Dependents’ Village or Caihongjuan Village is one of Taichung’s surprising attractions. It’s a small village painted with very colorful artworks by a veteran soldier fondly called “Rainbow Grandpa.”
Rainbow Village is one of many small housing community for veteran soldiers and their families. However, these veterans’ villages were slowly being torn down one by one by the government.
Mr. Huang a.k.a. Rainbow Grandpa, started painting the walls with different characters in very vibrant colors. Soon, the place became an attraction and the government suspended demolition in the area. What a way to save a village!
What to expect
The Rainbow Village is just a small area and can easily be explored in a few minutes. Entrance is free. There is nothing much to do there except to take photos and admire the beautiful artworks.
Because we visited early in the morning on a Monday, there weren’t a lot of people yet. I heard that it can get really jampacked on the weekends.
And because there weren’t a lot of people, it was possible to take really nice photos without photobombers in the background. Yay!
Meeting Rainbow Grandpa
Rainbow Village is still where Rainbow Grandpa actually lives. Most of the time, he greets visitors who come. I thought that was pretty cute and I wanted to meet him myself!
Recently, his grandson opened a small souvenir shop selling items featuring the colorful artworks of Mr. Huang. We saw Rainbow Grandpa sitting and talking to visitors at the shop! We asked if we could take a photo with him and he said yes! He also gave us little cards to hold up on the photo.
He even made this funny pose and encouraged us to make a funny face with him. Haha! What a cool grandpa!
I got myself a postcard and asked him to sign it. I wanted him to sign the front but he said it will smudge (it was matte laminated.) So he just signed the back. There were also stamps in the area that you can use. I stamped a few on my postcard!
It was our first stop when we visited Taichung. It was the closest attraction to the High Speed Rail station (more on that next time!) I would recommend a quick stop if you love taking photos and if you appreciate the cute and colorful artworks that Rainbow Grandpa does!
Read more about our Taiwan trip here!
16 Comments
angeli
August 30, 2016 at 11:08 amwhat a nice find! thanks for sharing Sheena!
Sheena Sy Gonzales
August 30, 2016 at 12:52 pmGlad you like it Angeli, you should go next time!
Pia
August 30, 2016 at 11:41 amThe place is super vibrant! Also, the dress you’re wearing here is gorgeous! 😀
http://pepperonipia.com
Sheena Sy Gonzales
August 30, 2016 at 12:52 pmThanks Pia!! Yes it’s such a happy, colorful place!!
Bea
September 2, 2016 at 6:23 pmThinking about going to Taiwan for 2 weeks now! And you’re making me book a flight already.
Sheena Sy Gonzales
September 2, 2016 at 6:37 pmYou won’t regret it! Hehe!
Clare
September 6, 2016 at 6:35 pmWow! What a beautiful place! What he did to the place is so inspiring.
Sheena Sy Gonzales
September 6, 2016 at 10:03 pmHi Clare yup, very inspiring!
Sarah May
September 10, 2016 at 5:12 pmHi! Thanks for your Taiwan posts! Just in time for our Taiwan trip this coming October!
Just curious, did you buy your train tickets to Taichung online or its best to buy it when you’re there in TW?
Sheena Sy Gonzales
September 10, 2016 at 10:11 pmHi Sarah, glad you like the posts! I’m in the process of writing an article about Taichung (transpo details, etc.), hope you can keep an eye out for that! For the train, we bought ours online because we wanted to travel there early and didn’t wanna spend time buying tickets at the station. But you can do either way. We bought our return tickets there.
Kai
September 17, 2016 at 5:16 pmThis place is soo instagram-worthy! I pinned this post so that I could check it out when go to Taiwan! :))
http://kittyjournal.com
Sheena Sy Gonzales
September 17, 2016 at 9:18 pmIt’s such a beautiful place! You should go!
Reg
November 16, 2016 at 3:30 pmHow to go there though? Is there a transportation from Taoyuan Airport going there? Thanks!
Sheena Sy Gonzales
November 16, 2016 at 4:40 pmFrom Taipei, you have to take the HSR to Taichung and form Taichung, we took a cab. Check out my blog entry entitled “Day Trip to Taichung” for detailed info about our transportation!
Abby Ramos
April 18, 2018 at 4:08 pmHi Sheena which month did you go to Taichung? We have a schedule to Taiwan by last week of June.
Thanks for your reply!
Sheena Sy Gonzales
April 19, 2018 at 5:06 pmWe went August!